Transgender, Gender-Diverse, and Nonbinary Experiences in Physical Therapy: A Descriptive Qualitative Study.

Objective: The objective was to explore experiences with and identify barriers and facilitators of utilizing physical therapy for people who identify as transgender, gender diverse, and nonbinary (TGNB).

Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was employed using semistructured interviews conducted in New Zealand. Eligible participants were individuals who were 12 years old or older, who self-identified as TGNB, and who had accessed physical therapy at a community-based clinic that also provides a gender-affirming service.

Reliability of lower limb strength assessment in female team sport athletes.

Background: Lower limb injury rates have increased dramatically in line with increased female sport participation levels. Muscle strength is a modifiable lower limb injury risk factor, guiding performance monitoring and rehabilitation.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the test-retest reliability of isokinetic and isometric lower limb peak torque to body mass of muscles acting on the hip, knee, and ankle in female team sport athletes.

Reliability of the running vertical jump test in female team sport athletes.

Unlabelled: Injury rates to the lower limb have increased over the past 40 years, coinciding with increases in female sport participation rates. Sport specific tests such as the running vertical jump (RVJ) are utilised for injury risk profiling, however the test-retest reliability is unknown.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the test-retest reliability of the thorax, pelvis and lower limb joint angular kinematics and kinetics for the RVJ test in female team sport athletes.

A novel blinding protocol to test participant and therapist blinding during dry needling: a randomised controlled experiment.

Objectives: Dry needling is widely used in physiotherapy. Lack of blinding in clinical trials means that dry needling effects and mechanisms remain unclear, with blinding issues accepted as an unavoidable barrier to better evidence. The authors aimed to overcome this barrier by designing a protocol to double-blind dry needling trials.

A collaborative experiential problem-solving approach to develop shams for complex physical interventions: a case study of dry needling.

Objective: Complex physical interventions are widely used in physiotherapy, despite doubts over the validity of clinical trial results due to lack of credible shams. Credible shams are critically needed, so too, therefore, is a process by which they can be developed. The authors used a novel methodology to develop and test blinding protocols for dry needling, a complex physical intervention for which blinding is particularly difficult.

Towards more credible shams for physical interventions: A Delphi survey.

Background/aims: In clinical trials of physical interventions, participant blinding is often poorly addressed and therapist blinding routinely omitted. This situation presents a substantial barrier to moving the field forward. Improving the success of blinding will be a vital step towards determining the true mechanisms of physical interventions.

Towards more homogenous and rigorous methods in sham-controlled dry needling trials: two Delphi surveys.

Objectives: Sham-controlled trials of dry needling, a popular treatment for pain, use a range of methods and theoretical frameworks and most have high risk of bias. Critically, patient blinding is often unsuccessful and therapist blinding has not been attempted. The specific effects of dry needling on pain therefore remain unclear.

Blinding Strategies in Dry Needling Trials: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Blinding of participants and therapists in trials of physical interventions is a significant and ongoing challenge. There is no widely accepted sham protocol for dry needling.

Purpose: The purpose of this review was to summarize the effectiveness and limitations of blinding strategies and types of shams that have been used in dry needling trials.

Effectiveness and adequacy of blinding in the moderation of pain outcomes: Systematic review and meta-analyses of dry needling trials.

Background: Blinding is critical to clinical trials because it allows for separation of specific intervention effects from bias, by equalising all factors between groups except for the proposed mechanism of action. Absent or inadequate blinding in clinical trials has consistently been shown in large meta-analyses to result in overestimation of intervention effects. Blinding in dry needling trials, particularly blinding of participants and therapists, is a practical challenge; therefore, specific effects of dry needling have yet to be determined.

Does Physical Activity Increase After Total Hip or Knee Arthroplasty for Osteoarthritis? A Systematic Review.

Study Design Systematic review. Background Despite improvements in self-reported symptoms and perceived functional ability after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA), it is unclear whether changes in objectively measured physical activity (PA) occur after surgery. Objective To determine if objectively measured PA increases after THA and TKA in adults with osteoarthritis.

Snakes and ladders: the barriers and facilitators of elective hip- and knee-replacement surgery in Australian public hospitals.

Objectives: Waiting lists for elective surgery are a persistent problem faced by health systems. The progression through elective surgery waiting lists can be likened to a game of snakes and ladders where barriers (snakes) delay access to surgery and facilitators (ladders) expedite access. The aim of the present study was to describe the barriers and facilitators to delivery of total hip- and total knee-replacement surgery in South Australian public-funded hospitals.

Does the method of component fixation influence clinical outcomes after total knee replacement? A systematic literature review.

A systematic literature review was conducted to identify the best available evidence describing the differences in clinical outcome associated with the different methods of total knee replacement (TKR) fixation. Randomized trials published between 1980 and January 2011 comparing differences in clinical outcome scores between groups allocated to either cemented or uncemented fixation for TKR were included. Nine of the 11 studies included in the review reported no significant differences in clinical outcomes between groups with either cemented or uncemented prosthesis components.

The journey to total hip or knee replacement.

Objectives: Despite the incidence of joint replacements in Australia, there is a paucity of information regarding how patients progress from their referral to their surgery. The aim of this study was to describe a patient pathway from referral to receipt of total hip replacement (THR) or total knee replacement (TKR) surgery in South Australian public hospitals.

Methods: Patient perspectives of the pathway to THR and TKR surgery were obtained via a postal survey (n=450) and hospital employee perspectives were attained via semi-structured interviews (n=19).

All the stereotypes confirmed: differences in how Australian boys and girls use their time.

Background: To influence adolescent health, a greater understanding of time use and covariates such as gender is required.

Purpose: To explore gender-specific time use patterns in Australian adolescents using high-resolution time use data.

Method: This study analyzed 24-hour recall time use data collected as part of the 2007 Australian National Children's Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey (n = 2,200).

Effect of a low-Dye application of Scotchcast Soft Cast on peak and mean plantar pressures in subjects with a navicular drop greater than 10 mm.

Background: We investigated whether a low-Dye application of Scotchcast Soft Cast significantly altered plantar pressure distribution during gait in patients with a navicular drop greater than 10 mm.

Methods: An experimental, same-subject, repeated-measures design was used. Thirty-two subjects aged 18 to 35 years were screened with the navicular drop test and were included if a navicular drop greater than 10 mm was established.